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| Maryna Rakhlei |
For weeks it’s played several times a day on the radio, appeared on TV and has a video. Now the song is also visually associated with the president and his electoral campaign. Is there such a thing as bad PR?
Belarus on the eve of presidential elections on 19 December is a postmodernist world. On the internet, observers tot up irregularities in the early voting that started on 14 December, for e.g. that officials, students and employees of state-owned companies are made to vote early. On TV, Lukashenka demands democracy and says forced early voting is inadmissible. He jokes that he has become too democratic and his colleagues won’t understand him.
And in real life? People generally are planning not to show up to vote because they believe they already know the outcome of this little game.
A lot of first-evers and big numbers: 10 registered candidates; just one quarter of one percent of members of electoral committees who are opposition-linked; 400 accredited foreign journalists; a European scandal (on cruelty to animals); a car crash with one candidate (no harm done); a lot of peaceful demonstrations (not dispersed); meetings of candidates with voters all around the country (not prevented).
Yes, even first-ever live TV debates, but without the incumbent President. Meanwhile, as the expert counted, coverage of his activities on TV outweighs that of his nine opponents by a ratio of more than 1,000:1.
British actor Jude Law together with opposition leaders have invited Belarusians to a rally after polling stations close on the big day. As usual, the authorities have accused Lukashenka’s rivals of plotting violence and have promised to prevent it. Media reported of dozens of assorted military machines and water cannons (it’s -15C now!) moving into position in Minsk.
The President has stated that Belarus used up its quota of revolutions last century. He expects the cold weather to cool the ardour of protesters even as he promises to protect them.
According to media reports, the Lithuanian president sees the victory of Alyaksandr Lukashenka as a safeguard for the stability of Belarus and against Russian influence. Nobody wants Russia or a “second Russia” as a neighbour, Dalia Grybauskaite was quoted as saying.
Dalia, Sanya will stay with us, don’t worry.
Worried seemed to be Russian Prime Minister Putin. Yesterday (16 December) he counted the costs of Belarusian friendship: Russia annually loses $3 billion in revenues due to duty-free gas deliveries to Belarus; oil duty abolition will bring Belarus $4 billion in extra revenues in 2011. What he ‘forgot’ to mention is the Customs (!) Union (!!) of Belarus, Russia and Kazakhstan that Moscow is trying to push an unwilling Minsk towards.
Apropos of Russia. WikiLeaks text on Belarus reveals that the US allegedly won’t compromise its principles (regarding criticism of Belarus’ human rights record for e.g.) in the name of better relations with Moscow. The EU is said to be looking into possible support Belarus worth two to three billion dollars.
None of this will be decisive. The important thing is that the people are generally satisfied with their uninformed lives and moderate wages. They are all part of the system created by Lukashenka, a system which still works well enough to make the pain of transition, transformation and liberalisation unnecessary and offers no alternatives.
The last dictatorship of Europe? Belarus? Noooo! We are the best dictatorship in Europe.
